PM Modi slams Cong in Rajasthan

Prime Minister Narendra Modi while launching the work commencement of the petroleum refinery in Pachpadra on Tuesday sounded to be on mission Rajasthan. He flayed the Congress and praised the BJP government in Rajasthan and chief minister Vasundhara Raje. He reiterated his commitment towards development and put forth the works accomplished by this government for the poor sections of the society.

PM Modi, CM Raje and Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan launched a concerted attack on the Congress and accused it of merely announcing schemes and never completing them. PM also accused Congress of not addressing the problems and issues of the poor.

Even though the focus of the PM’s speech was on development and benefitting the poor, on the recieving end of the scathing attack was the Congress.

He said the work commencement function for the petroleum refinery will be marked as an occasion that will show the public that projects need to be commenced and completed, not just announced. He then announced that the refinery would be inaugurated in 2022.  

Modi said work commencement at the refinery would serve to create a situation that whenever in the country, a project was launched, the public would ask; when is work commencing on the project. He went on to say that work commencement at Pachpadra refinery would make the people aware that just announcing projects and fixing stones would not be enough.

The refinery has been an issue of huge contention between the BJP and the Congress. Foundation stone for the refinery was laid by Sonia Gandhi during Ashok Gehlot tenure, just days before assembly election were announced in September 2013. Gehlot had written a letter to Modi and asked him to not come again for laying a foundation stone. Prime minister Modi today without flayed the entire Congress.  

To further stress on the point, he mentioned the one rank one pension issue (OROP) and said the Congress kept it in abyence for over 40 years and when he (Modi) announced that they would implement the OROP if the BJP formed a government, the Congress rushed and announced 500 crore in interim budget. He said this was done without any planning or estimation of requirement. He said it took his government 18 months of exhaustive work to list beneficiaries and draw a budget that came up to Rs 12000 crore. He said the former Army men accepted his request of making the payments in parts and the government has already issued four instalments of Rs 10700 crore.  

He mentioned that the Rail Budget had announcements that were never completed. “We have decided that we will not make announcements just to get momentary praise and false applause. We will only announce what will be completed,” said the Prime Minister to the crowd at Pachpadra. 

The Congress has always spoken of ending poverty but never did anything to end the woes of the poor and make them better for 40 years. There were no schemes to end poverty. Even after 70 years of Independence was to engage them in digging holes and giving them some money to meet expenses. Had they actually helped the thought about development, poor would have stood up to end povery. “Our effort is empowerment of the poor,” said the PM. He went on to mention zero balance accounts, Ujjwala schemes and rural electrification schemes that have actually helped the poor. These beneficiaries he said bless him. 

Prime Minister subtly hinted how consolidated efforts can benefit states. Without saying it in so many words, the message was clear development would be smoothly facilitated if there were BJP governments in the state and the centre. Modi said he had agreed to Rajasthan getting more benefits through the project and centre losing out on them, this he said can only happen with BJP at the helm of governance. 

In another strong worded attack, he said the Congress is synonym to drought. “They are twins,” he said. “Whereever there is Congress, drought follows,” thundered Modi in the dry parched district of Barmer.

While assembly elections in Rajasthan are yet several months away, the tone and tenor of PM Modi’s address makes it abundantly clear that the BJP is already in poll Mode and would spare no salvo to take on the Congress.

MISSION 2022

WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE

Prime minister Narendra Modi announced in Pachpadra that the refinery would be inaugurated in 2002. He also went on to explain the significance of the year. He said 2022 is the 75th anniversary of the Independence of the country and that is when the refinery will start functioning. It would be a landmark step towqards making the country meeting its energy requirements. This he said would generate employment to lakhs and change the scenario of the area.